Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin gives big raise to staffer before leaving office

With fewer than six months left in office, Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin more than quadrupled the salary of her office’s lone staffer, who is also a ranking state GOP officer and a former spokesperson for McGeachin’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign.

McGeachin on Monday submitted a notice she raised Machele Hamilton’s salary to $37 per hour, the equivalent of nearly $77,000 in annual pay. McGeachin said Hamilton had accepted a full-time role and started on July 1 as the office’s director of strategy and constituent services.

Hamilton’s pay increase was first reported by The Associated Press.

McGeachin, in her part-time position as lieutenant governor, earns an annual salary of $48,406. The office has a budget this fiscal year of $202,200, as set by the Idaho Legislature.

Hamilton, a Nampa resident who serves as the Idaho Republican Party’s vice chair, also worked last year during the legislative session as McGeachin’s part-time administrative assistant, at a budgeted salary of just over $19,000, according to state records.

Hamilton and McGeachin each referred to that position in prior interviews with the Statesman as McGeachin’s director of communications. McGeachin in a previous interview also described Hamilton as a “good friend.”

By comparison, Jordan Watters, McGeachin’s former chief of staff, had a budgeted salary of $45,178 last fiscal year, state records showed. If approved, Hamilton’s new salary would represent more than a 70% hike compared to Watters, whose past duties would appear to shift to Hamilton in her new role.

Attempts by the Statesman to reach McGeachin on Wednesday were unsuccessful. Hamilton also did not return messages Wednesday from the Statesman.

But in a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon, McGeachin said “establishment politicians and the media” are “up to their old tricks.” McGeachin asked whether the two groups, which “appear to be targeting conservatives,” are trying to “influence delegates” in this week’s state GOP convention.

“They told you my office budget wasn’t balanced, but it was,” McGeachin’s Facebook post read. “Now they’re trying to manufacture a controversy about my staffing for the remainder of the year, but why did they choose to bring it up this week?”

Past budget woes

Hamilton’s hefty raise comes after McGeachin last month deferred most of her final paycheck to cover a shortfall in the lieutenant governor’s 2022 fiscal year budget, which ended June 30.

McGeachin faced a shortfall after using her taxpayer-funded operating budget to pay for $29,000 in legal fees, for the Idaho Press Club, which successfully sued McGeachin last year when she declined to hand over public records.

By June 24, the final payroll date of the fiscal year, the office was projected to have $724.42. A state budget analyst recommended McGeachin defer $1,713.26 of her June 24 wages until the following fiscal year, which started July 1.

Ten days into the new fiscal year, McGeachin informed state finance officials of Hamilton’s new job and salary increase, which dwarfs average raises for other state employees.

‘This is not typical’

The Idaho Legislature typically approves changes to state employees’ compensation.

Heads of state agencies under the governor’s purview — such as the Administration, Commerce and Correction departments — are responsible for making the adjustments by the standards set in each year’s appropriation bill. The Idaho Divisions of Human Resources (DHR) and Financial Management (DFM) oversee the process.

But other elected constitutional officers, such as the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction, oversee their own implementation of the Legislature’s budget bills.

“As a result, they are not required to submit plans to DHR or DFM but rather expected to put assurances in place internally to ensure legislative intent, rules and Idaho personnel and budgeting laws are followed,” Lori Wolff, Division of Human Resources administrator, told the Statesman by email.

The average change in employee compensation across state government this year was more than 7%, Alex Adams, administrator of the Idaho Division of Financial Management, told the Statesman by email.

Raises must be “based on job performance and market changes,” per Idaho law. For most state employees receiving a promotion, Division of Human Resources would review their new duties and job classification and analyze similar positions to determine pay, Wolff said.

“This is not typical,” Wolff said of Hamilton’s raise. “Since DHR was not consulted on this matter, we have no documentation of change in duties, reason for promotion or justification of such a large pay increase.”

Staffer a ‘loyal friend’

In an April sit-down interview with the Statesman, McGeachin highlighted her close relationship with Hamilton.

“Loyalty means a lot in this business, so she’s one that I count as being one of my most loyal friends,” McGeachin said.

Hamilton also told the Statesman by phone that the two were friends since at least 2018, when Hamilton worked as an Idaho Senate staffer, before moving into McGeachin’s office last year. For a time, Hamilton also served as treasurer of McGeachin’s gubernatorial campaign.

“We became close friends over the years,” Hamilton said in April. “We were just always involved in the same issues, the same groups, the same everything.”

During McGeachin’s gubernatorial campaign in the spring, Hamilton was often by her side, while also herself campaigning for a House seat. The two appeared together at a rally in March in support of long-haul truckers headed to Washington, D.C., to protest COVID-19 public health measures, as well as a private winery fundraiser in April near Caldwell.

Both candidates lost their Republican primaries in May.

McGeachin failed in her bid to unseat incumbent Gov. Brad Little, by more than 20 percentage points. Hamilton lost a close race to move on as the Republican candidate in Legislative District 12 to represent Nampa.

Next lieutenant governor to inherit budget

Hamilton’s new annual income also would represent 38% of the budget this fiscal year for the lieutenant governor’s office, which McGeachin will vacate in January. The fiscal year runs through June 30 of next year.

The circumstances of the raise don’t sit well with the two candidates running in November to replace the outgoing lieutenant governor.

House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, called the pay raise “questionable spending” in an emailed statement through his campaign spokesperson. Bedke is the Republican candidate to replace McGeachin as lieutenant governor.

“I have always made it my mission to live within the Idaho taxpayers’ means,” Bedke told the Statesman. “Not only is this mission ethically sound, but it’s constitutionally mandated.”

The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, Terri Pickens Manwieler, a Boise attorney, also chided McGeachin — and the GOP more broadly, including Bedke.

“Janice McGeachin is corrupt and she is so insulated by a broken one-party system that she doesn’t try to hide it,” Manweiler said by email through a campaign spokesperson. Manweiler said her election opponent, as House speaker, “aided and abetted McGeachin’s fellow extremists whenever it advanced his personal political agenda.

“Bedke and McGeachin both see public tax dollars as a personal expense account for themselves and for their wealthy, corrupt cronies,” she said.